Stocks and Sauces
Hiya! When Essa asked me to write this page for the cooking wikia, I got really excited. Sauces are an essential part of any cook or chef's repertoire. Now it's impossible for any one cook to master all the sauces; to expect them to even try would be asking to much. But every cook should memorize at least two sauces, and work on them until you can make them blindfolded. Mother Sauces are the base sauces used to create an almost infinite number and variety of other sauces. Most cooks will state emphatically that there are only five Mother Sauces, but I like to think that there are seven. These seven, all of which will be tailed in this dissertation, are: White Sauce, Tomato Sauce, Hollandaise, Bechamel, Veloute, Espagnole, Mayonnaise, and Buerre. Because listing the how-to of every single sauce would take countless pages, I've decided to just list what additives are used to create each sub-sauce. You'll notice I don't add amounts. That's intentionally. A sauce is a very personal thing, and should reflect the palate of the fur what makes it. The general rule of thumb is one tbs. of additive per one cup of sauce. As with any cooking, it is vital to understand that there are seven rules, heh, the Rules of Getting Sauced, that anyone dedicated to the art of sauce making should memorize and adhere to. The seven rules are: 1. Too Much of a sauce or too many sauces are the sign of an insecure chef. Sauces should only be applied to one ingredient, and then they should be drizzled on with a spoon or dolloped on, by no more than one spoonful, onto the main ingredient just before serving. Sauces should never mask or make a swimming pool for the food it is served with. 2. Sauce should be applied sparingly. There is rarely need for more than one sauce on a dish. 3. Sauces add moisture. This is not to say that sauces should be used to hide improperly cooked food, but rather to add a level of moisture to an ingredient or entree that is naturally dry. 4. Sauces add visual interest. A sauce can be smooth, chunky, or otherwise striking in appearance in order to make the whole dish pop. 5. Sauces adjust, contrast, or enhance texture 6. A sauce is meant to enhance the flavor of the ingredient, not conceal it. 7. Sauces provide contrast to flavor, color, or heat/coolness to a dish. That all being said, let's get on with the saucing! White Sauce White Sauce is made with equal portions of flour and butter to make a roux, to which cream is added. Inexperienced cooks often mistake white sauce for Bechamel, or sometimes the two terms are used interchangeably; but a true Bechamel is made with shallots. In order for a white sauce to come together in proper consistency, when it coats the back of a spoon, the mixture must be allowed to come to a gentle boil after the cream in mixed in. Flour won't thicken a sauce until it comes to a boil. However, the sauce must be watched to avoid over-boiling, which will impart an inedible burnt taste to the sauce. Add additives to the base sauce should be added after taking the sauce off of the heat and just before serving. White sauce serves as the Mother Sauce for: Albufera: For Poultry. Add Pimento butter to the base sauce. Allemande: For poultry. Add lemon juice, finely chopped mushroom, and finely grated egg yolk. Americane: For fish. Add finely diced anchovies. Aurore: For all foods. Add tomato paste. Aurore Migree: For fish. Thin the base sauce with a little hot fish stock. Au Cravette: Fot fish and shellfish. Add shrimp stock. Anglaise: For fish. Add copped egg yolk and grated nutmeg. Asura: For poultry. Add 1/4 tsp cayenne and 1 tbs. fresh roasted garlic. Arashi: For red meats and game. Add pepper and Sriracha. Bercy: For fish. Add chopped shallots and white wine. Bonnefoy: For pork and fish. Add white wine and fresh chopped tarragon. Bretton: For fish. Add chopped white part of a leek and finely diced mushroom. Bohemian: For fish, esp. salmon. Add fresh chopped tarragon and lemon juice. Chivry: For poultry. Add white wine and freshly copped chervil, parsley, and tarragon. Chardinale: For shellfish, esp. Lobster. Add truffles and hot lobster stock. Diplomate: For fish. Add truffle and finely diced lobster meat. Eccossoise: For eggs. Add sour cream, lemon juice, and pepper. Fromage: For Pasta. Add 1/2 cup shredded cheese per cup of sauce. Huitres: For oysters. Add cold oyster stock. Lobster: For seafood and pasta. Add hot sauce and finely diced lobster meat. Mornay: For fish. Add 1/2 cup each grated Parmesan and smoked Gouda per cup of sauce. Normande: For fish. Add finely diced mushroom, lemon juice, and 1 raw egg yolk. Supreme: Four poultry. Add white wine, melted butter, and whipped cream. Velleroy: For coating items before breading. Thin the base sauce with lemon juice and then add 1 egg yolk, and truffle essence. Vin Blanc: For fish. Add white wine, melted butter, and 1 egg tolk. Section heading Write the second section of your page here.